How to Strengthen Your Knees: Expert Tips

If you want to stay active and mobile, healthy knees are essential. Muscle imbalances, age-related joint changes, and injuries can all affect the health of your knees — and if your knees are weak, you’re more prone to sprains, strains, and even severe injuries like torn ligaments. In this article, we’ll explore the science behind knee strengthening, and the best exercises to get your knees strong.

Understanding knee anatomy

To understand how the knee works, you first need to understand its structure and the common problems that can affect it.

Your knee joint consists of three bones: the femur (thigh bone), tibia (shin bone), and patella (kneecap). The hamstring, thigh, and calf muscles support your knees and allow movement alongside smaller muscles, as shown below.

The menisci (crescent-shaped pieces of cartilage) provide cushioning to either side of your knee. Four main ligaments provide stability by stopping excessive movement in any direction:

1. The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)
2. The posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)
3. The medial collateral ligament (MCL
4. The lateral collateral ligament (LCL)

Common knee problems

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There are many ways things can go wrong with your knees. A few of the most common are:

• Osteoarthritis. A condition where your knee cartilage wears down over time, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling. The estimated lifetime risk of developing symptomatic knee osteoarthritis is 13.8%, and it is more likely to affect older adults.
• ACL injuries. A direct impact to your knee often causes these, or twisting suddenly with your foot planted. For this reason, they’re common in sports. ACL injuries range from a relatively mild grade 1 tear to a complete rupture that often requires an ACL reconstruction (grade 3).
• Patellar tendonitis. This condition is also known as a jumper’s knee and, as the name suggests, is common in jumping and running sports. It is an overuse injury that causes inflammation of your patellar tendon and pain or tenderness just below your kneecap.

Benefits of strengthening the knees

Knee strengthening exercises, such as straight leg raises, may offer many benefits. Here, we’ll explore these in more detail.

Improved stability and balance

Stronger knees are more stable. When your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and other knee muscles are strong, they improve your ability to perform tasks that require balance. There’s a reason that soccer players, gymnasts, and most other athletes have a non-negotiable knee-strengthening regime.

But it’s not only elite athletes who need strong knees — good balance and knee stability are needed to walk along a stony beach without slipping, pick up the groceries when it’s icy, or kick a ball around with the kids.

Injury prevention and treatment

Increasing knee strength and stability may reduce your risk of common knee injuries. A 2021 systematic review published in Sage Journals shows that strength training effectively reduces the risk of sports injuries.

Furthermore, a 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis published in BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders supports strengthening exercises. Across 10 studies, researchers found that specific hip strengthening exercises reduced pain and functional limitations in individuals with knee osteoarthritis.

Enhanced athletic performance

Strong knees may lead to better performance in most sports. For example, studies have demonstrated that strength training improves soccer players' game performance.

A 2022 meta-analysis found that different strength training programs led to similar short-sprint and jump performance improvements, and the specific training strategy was not particularly important. Preseason training was more effective than in-season training for first-division players, possibly because of the busy game schedule, which may limit training sessions.

Exercises to strengthen the knees

Read on to learn how to strengthen knees, but remember to always start with a warm-up.

Warm-up exercises

Warming up is essential to preventing injuries when performing strength exercises. Try 2–3 rounds of 30 seconds of each exercise below, working your right and left leg equally.

Strengthening exercises

Strengthening exercises should target all the key muscles of the knee and the glutes, which also help control proper knee movement. To get started, pick two exercises from each section and try 2–3 sets of 10.

If the exercise is weighted, pick a weight that feels comfortable. Gradually increase the weights and number of exercises over time as you gain strength and fitness.

Quadricep strengthening

Hamstring strengthening

Calf strengthening

Glute strengthening

Flexibility and mobility knee exercises

Lower body flexibility is essential for healthy knees. Good flexibility helps maintain a full range of motion in the knees, guards against injuries, and allows proper form through strengthening exercises. Try 3 sets of 30 seconds for each of the following:

Tips for safe knee strengthening

Here, we’ll explore how to strengthen your knees while staying safe and avoiding injuries.

Proper form and technique

Proper form and technique are vital to improving knee strength without injury. Perfecting your exercise technique allows you to target the right muscles without placing too much strain on your knees, hips, ankles, or lower back.

Common mistakes, such as letting your knees move inward during squats, could put you at risk of injury while reducing the strength benefits from the exercise. Seek advice from a qualified exercise specialist if in doubt, such as a physical therapist or personal trainer. They can teach you the correct technique; for example, during squats, you must:

• Slowly bend your knees
• Keep your feet shoulder-width apart
• With your knees bent, keep them facing straight ahead (sometimes one leg or both legs try to move inward)
• Be mindful of any existing knee pain and stop if it hurts

Gradual progression

To avoid injuries, start with a weight and number of repetitions that you feel comfortable with. Gradually build these up over time, listening to your body and scheduling regular recovery days.

Additional practices for knee health

Strengthening is important, but it’s not the only piece of the knee health puzzle. Here are some other factors to consider.

Nutrition for joint health

There are mixed results on the effects of supplements on knee health, and further research is needed on many supplements and their impact on various knee conditions. However, a 2022 meta-analysis published in Nutrients focused on various supplements’ impact on knee osteoarthritis and found that:

• Curcumin improved pain and function compared to a placebo
• Ginger reduced pain and inflammation
• Vitamin D helped with pain and function
• Omega-3 and vitamin E showed no benefits

Keep in mind that supplements cannot be considered a treatment or primary remedy for knee conditions. They should be used only as an addition to a comprehensive knee health routine when advised or approved by a healthcare professional.

Use of knee supports and braces

Knee supports and braces may provide stability and help prevent injuries during sports or daily activities. Types of braces include:

• Knee supports and braces to prevent injury
• Functional braces to help with sports and daily activities while managing a long-term condition
• Rehabilitative braces, used for a set period after an injury to help with return to full fitness — these sometimes keep your leg bent at a specific angle or keep your leg straight

Rest and recovery

Every strengthening program needs rest and recovery days. These days off are required to keep knees healthy and strong — overtraining without enough recovery can lead to injuries.

On rest days, make use of recovery techniques whenever possible. These include icing to reduce inflammation, massage to relieve muscle tension, and elevating your legs straight while lying down.

When to seek professional help

Some symptoms call for a professional evaluation to rule out any serious conditions. If you have severe pain, swelling, instability, or difficulty bearing weight, or if your symptoms persist and aren't getting better with rest, seek the help of a healthcare professional.

A physical therapist will complete a full physical assessment and can help in the following ways:

• Providing a diagnosis
• Advising on scans needed to rule out severe injuries or confirm the diagnosis
• Referring to other healthcare professionals if needed
• Providing personal exercise programs, including strengthening exercises
• Teaching you the proper technique for the exercises provided
• Easing knee pain with treatments such as manual therapy, massage, and acupuncture

Knee strengthening can help balance, stability, injury prevention, and athletic performance. Many exercises can be done from the comfort of your own home with minimal equipment.